Waze provides free turn-by-turn directions, with help from your friends

From the beginning, the iPhone came with a nifty Maps application that pulled data from Google Maps and provided directions to your location. Unfortunately, it lacked the ability to do spoken, turn-by-turn directions, like a “real” GPS unit. And sadly, four years and iPhone generations later, the Maps app is still mute.

Now, there are plenty of apps that will do spoken, turn-by-turn directions in the App Store, but most of them are paid. There are few free ones, such as Mapquest, but I’ve always found them lacking in some way.

Recently, I started using a very intriguing navigation app called Waze. It offers turn-by-turn directions and it’s free, but it has a twist that makes it very compelling. Waze has a built-in social network that supplies travel data and reports from its users to calculate the best possible route for you.

In my tests, it works quite well – surprisingly so. (There are versions for other smartphone platforms – more on that later.)

As with most navigation applications, Waze lets you enter a destination address for which a route is calculated. The first time you enter an address, you can tell the app whether this is regular destination to be saved to a list of favorites, such as Home, Work or School.

Waze may generate multiple routes, but will try to show you the best one. In the example below, it has found only one route to the University of Houston, where I teach a class twice a week. As I drive to this spot over time, Waze will learn the routes and eventually choose the best one each time.

I’ve been surprised at how well Waze’s route recommendations are. Last week, I had to drive to Rice University from the Chronicle, and Waze directed me to hop on the freeway and U.S. 59 south, something I normally would have avoided. But it got me there much faster than if I’d taken my usually, surface-street route, which is what Google Maps was suggesting.

Waze then presents a 3D-style map with a pleasant, easy-to-read design. As you drive, it speaks turns well in advance, warning you about half-a-mile ahead on surface streets and a mile on freeways that you’ll need to take action soon.

It also shows you the speed you’re traveling, the distance to your destination and, based on conditions along the route, how long it will take to get there. These are the kinds of features found in most standalone GPS units, but sometimes are lacking in smartphone navigation apps.

The two icons on the left and right bottom corners of the screen give you access to menus and allow you make reports about conditions on the road.

This is where Waze stands out, essentially crowdsourcing details about traffic conditions. For example, if you spot a speed trap, you can tap the police icon. Waze will let you enter details – and even snap a photo – but if you’re driving and aren’t able to type, it will add the report based solely on your location at the time of the tap. If you do nothing, the report times out.

Waze also has a game included that lets you earn points by driving out of your way to score cupcakes placed nearby on the map. The idea here is to get you to explore your surroundings, but also to increase the amount of info Waze has to work with. However, most folks using a navigation app are, you know, navigating somewhere. I wasn’t real inspired to go out of my way for cupcakes.

The app also lets you add random commentary. If you spot something interesting, you can enter a few words about it. Mostly, I found Waze users saying things like “Hi!” or “Good morning!”, but I can see where this might be useful if there was a critical mass of users in a given area.

The more people who use Waze, the better it gets. Fortunately, it also accesses more traditional sources of traffic date, such as Transtar reports n Houston, so you’re not strictly relying on crowdsourcing. But I found that, particularly on surface streets, Waze helped quite a bit. I was able to avoid construction zones and accidents in several instances.